Typically a standard or general drug delivery protocol/methodology can be used for most patients. Examples include generally known or existing catheterization and miscellaneous protocols. These protocols rarely contain criteria that are patient-specific (e.g., specific target positions or other locational constraints within the context of a particular patient's anatomy or medical history). Many protocols use generic anatomical landmark references for catheter placement or positioning.
Drug delivery technology has made advancements in fighting diseases that in the past were viewed as untreatable, such as metabolic diseases, cancer, hormonal disorders, and viral infections. The compounds used to treat such diseases are typically molecularly large and can be unstable, requiring injection or intravenous infusion. Challenges in drug delivery effectiveness include drug insolubility (e.g., in water), non-specificity/cytotoxicity of drugs, other drug side effects, deactivation by body system enzymes, low bioavailability and/or variability in bioavailability. Significantly, the appropriate targeting of drug therapy to systems (e.g., tissue) is a significant factor in these drug effectiveness considerations.
The effectiveness of most drugs depends on reaching target tissues, not plasma, and is impacted by inequilibrium between blood and tissue. Targeting issues affect both local and regional drug delivery strategies, effecting intra-arterial, intrathecal chemotherapy and intra-articular injections. Also, impaired drug penetration and blood-tissue inequilibrium can cause failures of the drug therapy or other complications. The therapy targeting patent landscape focuses more on modifications to pill coatings, engineering of therapies to target cellular receptors, and drug diffusion detection using MRI sensors.
While various navigation systems are known to allow for certain procedures, such as navigating an instrument relative to a patient or navigating an implant relative to a patient the navigation systems are generally used to determine a position of an instrument or implant relative to a selected portion of a patient or anatomy. It may be desirable, however, to track or know a location of a delivery device relative to a portion of a patient for achieving various delivery protocols. Various protocols are known or can be developed for applying or positioning a selected material, such as a medication, an antiseptic, an anesthesia, or other appropriate materials relative to a selected area. For example, treatment for a particular malady, such as a cancerous tumor, can include positioning a biological compound or a bioactive compound relative to the tumor. Nevertheless, the positioning of the chemical relative to the affected area can be difficult depending on the position of the affected area and path necessary to reach the affected area. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a system that allows for optimizing a therapy that can include the precise positioning of a delivery device and bioactive material relative to a selected area of a patient.